Here’s why to vote in midterms to give Democrats congressional majorities

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch” is an ancient proverb we should all keep in mind regarding the midterm elections. While pollsters and pundits say Democrats have a good chance of winning majority control of the House and Senate, this isn’t inevitable.

I agree that President Trump’s plummeting approval ratings , along with strong showings by many Democratic candidates in polls, indicate Democrats could flip control of one or both congressional chambers. But if many voters who favor Democrats skip voting because they believe their votes aren’t needed, Republicans could retain their congressional majorities.

In addition, if Trump achieves his goal of suppressing or invalidating many votes that would go to Democrats, Republicans could do better than expected in the midterms.

Trump — who still falsely claims he defeated Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election — will likely say Democratic midterm victories are rigged. He may try to overturn them, going to war not just against Democrats but against America’s democracy.

We must not let Trump destroy our system of free and fair elections. The only way we can stop him is to vote for Democrats between now and Election Day on Nov. 3.

Unlike football, which millions of us watch on TV and from the stands, democracy isn’t a spectator sport. We all have a responsibility to get on the field and cast ballots if we are to preserve our precious right of self-government and our other rights and freedoms.

GOP control of Congress for two more years would empower Trump to keep waging his senseless and costly war of choice against Iran, and continue his many other incompetent, destructive, corrupt and authoritarian actions. This would worsen the affordability crisis and all the other crises Trump has caused, and would endanger our rights and freedoms.

No matter what pollsters and pundits say, voting is necessary because election predictions are sometimes wrong. Don’t let them keep you from casting a ballot.

As the Pew Research Center reported shortly after the 2016 presidential election: “Relying largely on opinion polls, election forecasters put [Hillary] Clinton’s chance of winning at anywhere from 70% to as high as 99%, and pegged her as the heavy favorite to win a number of states … that in the end were taken by Trump.”

Trump’s efforts to suppress votes that he believes would go to Democrats — based on his baseless claims that widespread illegal voting is responsible for Democratic election victories — seek to turn back the clock on progress made in the expansion of voting rights.

Because of this progress , the right to vote that originally went only to white male landowners was gradually extended over many years to all white men, women and people of color.

In the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, people of all races protesting the denial of voting rights and other rights to African Americans were jailed, beaten and sometimes even killed. Failing to vote shows disrespect and ingratitude for their hard work, courage and sacrifices.

Unfortunately, far too many Americans who now have the right to vote don’t exercise it, especially in midterm elections. As the nonpartisan group Fair Vote reports : “Voter turnout in the United States is much lower than in other countries, hovering around 60% in presidential elections and 40% in midterm election years.”

Voter turnout in 2018 was the highest for any midterm since 1914, reaching 49 percent. Turnout dropped slightly to 46 percent in the 2022 midterms.

Early and absentee voting is already underway in several states. In the time they have left, Democrats need to focus on turning out as many voters as possible who are sick and tired of spineless congressional Republicans who have ignored their duty to support our Constitution and the rule of law, and have instead given Trump a blank check to do almost everything he wants.

While the courts have acted to stop some of Trump’s worst abuses, Congress should stop acting like a rubber stamp for Trump’s every whim and do the job America’s founders gave it as a co-equal branch of government. Republicans won’t do this. Democrats will.

While he absurdly denounces Democrats as communists, Trump is trying to rule with an iron fist like the communist dictators of China, Russia and North Korea, whom he envies for their unfettered power and showers with fawning praise. This makes our president not just a national embarrassment, but a national security risk.

I urge my fellow Americans — including independents and Republicans disillusioned with Trump — to restore America’s true greatness by electing Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. There is no better way to protect our country from Trump’s misrule, and to preserve and honor our Constitution and the rule of law in the year we celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday.

A. Scott Bolden is an attorney, NewsNation contributor, former chair of the Washington, D.C. Democratic Party and a former New York state prosecutor.